Little Miss Anna's tuffet

Much to my dh's chagrin, I was curb crawling last week.
Kind of, because I knew my neighbor was putting
things out that didn't sell at her sister's garage sale
and she told me to come take a look at it all.

I've always wanted to recover a footstool,
so I grabbed this first. She told me her daughter wanted it
but they just didn't want any more junk in there house.
I knew it had real potential and I said I'd fix it up for her daughter.

Anna is very into Barbie and pink and frilly,
so I set out to find something appropriate in my stash.
It was fun to do girly-girl. I don't get a chance to do it too much.

This is what the stool looked like in all its nakedness
after the very dated country-decor cover was taken off.

I "hired" my oldest to do some of the grunt work.
He's willing to do anything that requires power tools.
He glued the foam to the wooden top just enough
so that it didn't slip when we were putting on the fabric.

To make the top smooth, and prevent the rough wood
from poking through, I used quilted batting to line the stool.

We then stapled all the way around the bottom,
starting with one staple at opposite sides and
pulling tight to prevent puckers.

After my helper took a little rest, we cut off the excess fabric.

We did the same thing with the cute pink gingham fabric.
As you can see, one of the legs fell off mid-process, so....

...out came the wood glue to secure it back in place.

The white frilly trim is actually curtain tie-backs.
It was all meant to be!
Two of them fit perfectly around the stool.

I hand-stitched it in place through the center,
knowing the stitches would be hidden by trim.

The pink trim was pinned and then glued in place...

...after I made the last minute decision to add some lacy trim first.

And here it is. A tuffet fit for a princess.

I'm off to find some more footstools as this was
such an easy and fun project. I wonder if I can
cut down the tall kitchen stools we don't use.....

Lastly, I had to show you my other assistant.
She likes my dining room studio being so neat.
The chair is empty so she can sit on it and look out the window.